When the Stone Cracks
by JFlashandClash
Summary: What happens when a monster captures a demigod and decides to keep it as a pet? One of the members of the Traitor's Seven goes missing and his brother has to recruit help to get him back. Assuming the monster hasn't driven him insane…
1. Act I

Warning: occasional swearing, adult themes, violent depictions, shirtless guys, and copious amounts of weasels—wait? There are no weasels in this one?! Refund!

What happens when a monster captures a demigod and decides to keep it as a pet? One of the members of the Traitor's Seven goes missing and his brother has to recruit help to get him back. Assuming the monster hasn't already destroyed him…

When the Stone Cracks Part I

By J. Flash

Act I

When Kally's sister shouted that someone was at the door for her, she was crying into one of her pillows.

No one should have been making an unannounced visit. Her best friend, Merry, was in New York, over 400 miles away. The only other person who made house visits was her… friend Pax, who normally snuck in through her window and would never do so at the reasonable hour of 8:17 on a school night.

It was probably a monster. Monsters had done this before: used the Mist to cover up their true appearance to drop by for some _chat and kill_. They would claim Kally had their German textbook or the likes. At least the monsters could try to feign some effort-she didn't even take German.

The footsteps thumping up the stairs were too rapid for a calm house call.

Kally snatched the Argonaut statue off the bookshelves built above her bed and rose to her feet. It turned into a celestial bronze discus when thrown, and she had a feeling she'd need it. Unfortunately, her room wasn't big enough to properly hurl it, so she'd have to be careful—

Someone knocked at the door.

Monsters were not known for their courtesy-knocking.

"Kally?" a shaky, familiar voice called."May I—I'm sorry for the intrusion—"

She dropped the discus and rushed to open the door.

Axel stood on the other side. His short hair looked disheveled, and Kally realized he must have normally gelled it. Stubble darkened his normally well-trimmed goatee. Half a cigarette was tucked behind one ear. His clothing reeked of smoke.

"I—may I come in?" he asked, trembling.

There wasn't much "in" to come into, since her room wasn't big enough for a desk or chair, but she nodded and stood to the side. Axel never looked this… agitated. She was too stunned to say anything, except to blurt, "I didn't know you smoked."

Axel didn't seem to hear her. He squeezed past her, eyes frantically darting from her bed, her nightstand, and her closet with the armoire inside. Once he inspected the place thoroughly, his shoulders sagged. "Pax isn't with you…" he stated.

"No," she confirmed. Worry twisted her stomach. Was he supposed to be? Pax did need a babysitter, else you might find him teepeeing the closest temple, and that was if he was feeling uncreative.

"Have you seen him in the last 24 hours?" Axel asked.

"No…" she repeated, feeling horrendously unhelpful.

"I think… I think he darted me asleep," Axel said. He puffed up his cheeks and popped them, then mumbled in Mayan. He shook his head.

From what Pax had told Kally, Axel had night terrors that caused insomnia. Every so often, Pax would use his knockout darts to give his brother a well earned nap, without his permission of course. Just a normal expression of Pax affection.

"When I woke up, he was gone—but the van door was wide open like…" Axel shook his head again and mumbled more in Mayan. Kally hoped he realized, as much as Pax had been trying to teach her useful phrases like _my corn tastes better than yours_ , she didn't _actually_ speak the language. "It's been over ten hours, not including however long I was asleep. Chris messaged that he's not with the Hermes Cabin. You're the only one I know he'd go to see…"

 _That_ was worrisome. Axel couldn't get Pax to leave him alone for thirty minutes unless he was harassing Kally or Chris, let alone a few hours.

From the look on Axel's face, he was scared.

When he settled his gaze on her face, his eyes widened. "Kally…" He reached out to touch her face. "What happened?"

At first, she didn't know what he was talking about. Then she remembered how puffy her cheeks got when she cried. Normally, she would shy away or blush if Axel touched her—especially her jaw line. Though she didn't think Axel had _ever_ touched her face.

She shouldn't talk about it, especially not when Axel was so worried about Pax and needed to be looking for him. But her lower lip trembled with the threat of further sobs. "I talked to my mom," she said.

Kally didn't need to explain about what. Everyone in their party knew her parents were married, and that her mother either cheated on her nonbiological father with Apollo or was raped by him. Since she found out she was a demigod, she'd been trying to get up the courage to ask.

Axel's gaze was steady. "What did she say?"

Against her will, she could feel the hot wetness streak down her cheeks. Her voice cracked. "She didn't. She just—she just packed up her bags—and—and—she left to stay at her sisters. She…"

Kally choked. Axel was not the typical person you'd want to seek comfort from. He was notorious for criticizing others for being emotionally compromised during battle and shaming them into compliance. He was so strong. This _was_ the weakest she'd seen him.1 Even if this wasn't a battle, she didn't want to bother him with her family problems when he'd tried so hard to shield her from his.2

That's why she was so surprised when she felt him slip an arm around her shoulder and another around the small of her back. Axel hugged her, pulling her against his chest and leaning down so she could cry into his shoulder.

By then, she gasped with sobs. "I didn't even get to ask—I—I said I knew dad wasn't my biological father—I was trying to be gentle, like Merry said—the look on her face. She looked horrified and offended, like I'd smacked her. And she just—she just left—she just…"

Kally heaved, her legs feeling weak. She hadn't talked to anyone. None of her siblings or her father knew why her mother had suddenly left. Her mother left a note saying there was an emergency and they hadn't heard from her since.

Axel rubbed a hand a long her back, letting her cry. She didn't want to, but-but really, _really_ all she wanted was to be held, for someone to tell her that her mother would come back, that it was Apollo's fault, not her fault for being born and fucking up her family.

"Confronting your mother was brave Kally," Axel said at last. "Don't discount that."

She was scared she'd start to sob again. Despite herself, she laughed weakly and said, "You smell terrible."

Axel withdrew. His lips twitched like he wanted to smile. "I know. Pax hates this smell too."

"We should go find him," Kally said. She waited for him to say she wasn't fit for action.

He examined her. Others said Axel's gaze was unnerving. He seemed to blink less than the average person, and his stare was almost…predatorial and hungry.

Instead, he nodded. "Let's get you out of here. You have your discus, nectar, ambrosia, and some nice looking street clothes that you can still fight in?"

"Street clothes?" Kally repeated. That was all she really heard in the long list. Fortunately, she already had ambrosia and nectar tucked away in her messenger bag.

"Yea," Axel confirmed. "I have a guess as to where he is, but I need to ask some people some questions before I can be sure."

"Oh—oh-okay," Kally mumbled dumbly.

"We're going to a club," Axel clarified.

She'd never been to a club. She wasn't old enough for the big kid ones and there wasn't an overabundance of them for sixteen-year-olds. Hesitantly, she reminded Axel, "I—uh—don't think I can get into a club."

"You can get into this one," he assured with a shrug. "Since Camp Othrys was defeated, they don't see a lot of half-bloods. They'll be excited you're there," he spoke like it was intel for a mission. Kally guessed it technically was, but it didn't make her feel more comfortable. Though her comfort didn't matter; she'd do anything to get out of the house and get her mind off what happened.

She put a hand to her mouth, thinking. "Um, nice street clothes?" she asked.

He shrugged again. "I just wear a nice T-shirt and jeans but…" He hesitated. "I'm a guy. I'm not sure how it works for women. But make sure you can still fight in it."

Kally had several skirts she she'd bought thinking she'd one day she'd look less like a slob, and that day never came. Axel excused himself out of the room while she fumbled to find one that wasn't wrinkled. She ended up with a high-waisted skirt that flared a few inches above the knees, some leggings, and a pair of combat boots. She wished Merry were here. She'd fix her hair and makeup in seconds, but Merry would also probably roll her skirt up by one layer. Kally threw on some mascara.

Axel stood outside the door, facing away and surveying the hallway like a bodyguard. When he heard the door open, he turned and smiled. "You look cute," he said.

Kally felt her cheeks get hot. She hated when he dropped compliments like it was nothing.

Her father would probably already be asleep or in the basement, playing computer games. Her sister apparently didn't care that Axel was here. Luke and Mark were out. That left—

As they started to go down the stairs, Kally caught sight of John standing by the front door, arms folded. "Where do you think you're g—"

Her brother choked on his words when he saw Axel behind her. He shrank back against the wall. "Uh—"

While they finished the last few steps, Axel waved at him. "Hi John," he said, like he hadn't scared him senseless last time they'd met. "I'm taking Kally to a club formerly for Kronos's men, to save my brother from a kidnapping. I'll try to get her back before dawn."

John stared at him. He glanced from them to the stairs to the door.

"Good man," Axel said, patting John's shoulder. John flinched. Kally could have sworn Axel was trying not to smile.

Axel stepped ahead and held the door open for Kally. Although she shouldn't have, Kally lifted her chin at John. "You're not the only one who's allowed to sneak out of the house," she snapped, then scampered out after Axel.

Most of the ride was silent. Axel kept the window cracked, so he could tap his ashes out. Kally couldn't understand why it bothered her so much. Maybe it was because she felt like she should have noticed that he smoked before? It did explain why the van would occasionally smell like someone had dumped a warehouse of _Bath and Bodyworks_ as a cover-up.

She didn't want to bring it up while he was so unsettled but he'd gone through at least three cigarettes. From the reflexive reach to pull another out from behind the sun visor, he wasn't aware of how many he had smoked.

"Pax doesn't like it when you smoke, does he?" she asked quietly.

Axel frowned. He was a quarter way down number four, but flicked it out the window. He didn't reach for another. "It reminds him too much of Santiago and Kouta. It really upsets him."

"Why do you always say Santiago instead calling him your father?" Kally asked. It didn't occur to her until now, but Pax would say "Dad" and Axel only ever said "Santiago."

"The man Ajax calls Uncle Frasco—he legally adopted me. He took care of me and my siblings. He and my mother w…" Axel trailed off.

When Kally glanced over, she could see Axel pressing his lips together. His brow was furrowed. _Too much,_ Kally thought, _these stupid Pax boys carry_ _ **too**_ _much alone._ He shook his head, eyes focusing into a scowl. "My dad is Frasco. I'll never call Santiago my father."

She wanted to apologize for asking and for the fact that Frasco was dead and Axel couldn't save him. Instead, hesitantly, she reached a hand out to where Axel's knuckles were tense on the van's shifter. Gently, she placed her fingers overtop his. "I know you need to be strong around Pax but… if you ever want to talk…"

She didn't want to insult Axel by suggesting he could ever be weak. As much as Pax told her about the awful things that happened to them when they were kids, she was sure Axel had never told anyone.

The van decelerated and Axel shook off her hand when he put the car into park. He kept his eyes down as he muttered, "We're here."

Kally tried not to feel disappointed. She grabbed her messenger bag off the ground, feeling stupid and silly in her skirt. Though she really hadn't wanted it to, the thought, " _what kind of girl would a Pax boy date?"_ had definitely decided some of her outfit choice. When she opened the door, she was surprised to hear Axel say, "Kally…"

She glanced over.

The worry crinkles around Axel's eyes made him look older than he was, but his wide eyes were those of a scared child. He puffed out his cheeks and popped them, opened his mouth then shut it. "Stay close to me," he finally said. His eyes narrowed back into battle mode and Kally couldn't shake the feeling she'd missed an opportunity to talk that would never arise again.

"We're not going to engage in long conversations with anyone unless we have to. I want us to go in and out as fast as possible. This place is not safe."

She forced a smile. "I'm a demigod. Of course this isn't safe."

His eyes softened at the truth in her statement. "You hang out with Ajax too much," he said.

Kally wanted to point out that he encouraged Kajax quality time every opportunity he got, but figured she should stick to the more relevant topic at hand. "What's the name of the place we're going to?"

A dark smile cracked his lips. "It's called The _Horizontal Monster Mash_."

The _Horizontal Monster Mash_ , or _Hmm_ as Axel told Kally monsters called it, was about as dingy a place as one would expect monsters to horizontally mash. That horrifying thought was one that Kally couldn't get out of her head the entire night, and—she feared—wouldn't go away for the rest of her life.

They parked a block away, but even that single stretch of sidewalk made Kally realize this was no place to parade a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt.

Other than the half-moon sneering down from the sky, there wasn't any lighting until the door. Trash and cigarette butts littered the ground. Two ionic style columns were on either side of the doorway with neon blue and purple lights spiraling downward. The sign above blinked _HMM_ every few seconds, to the rhythm of their footfalls on the concrete.

People were lined up along the side of the building, waiting to get in. From what she'd seen in movies, this was normal, but with each step closer, she realized why they unnerved her so much.

Most of them weren't human.

There were a few reptilian men and women, two or three people over six and a half feet tall, one or two were definitely ghosts—which made her wonder exactly why they were standing out in line. They were all hissing and chattering in Ancient Greek. _"Did you see Medusa's newest statue? She says anything less than a smile lacks creative insight, but I think the horror in that child's eyes is much more telling of the soul of the modern hero."_

 _"You lack creative insight. She wasted a perfectly good meal!"_

Reflexively, Kally stepped closer to Axel and clutched her messenger bag. Although he'd said not to worry about it and to act natural, this felt like casually walking towards a sniper with a bull's eye drawn on your chest. How could he think _none_ of these monsters would attack them?

Kally was already sure they were about to get jumped by at least ten different monsters, but then Axel did something to make matters even worse: he walked right past the line. Kally stared at the ground as hard as she could, her cheeks burning with embarrassment as she felt the eyes of those ten monsters staring hatefully after them.

There was a bouncer at the door. It was a Cyclops, about eight feet tall, with a clipboard in his hands. Maybe Kally should have felt a little racist for wondering it, but could Cyclopes read? He wore a black biker jacket that had Kally realizing that some Harley Davidson, somewhere, was making jackets in size XXXXXL.

When Axel got up to the Cyclopes, it completely ignored him, flirting with one of the snake women in line. Axel remained calm, took one hand out of his pocket and pushed the Cyclops's clipboard down. The snake woman hissed at him.

Kally had to wonder: since she wasn't particularly fond of the Greek gods, but this whole Greek god thing had shaken her relationship with God, who should she pray to when she thought she was going to die?

"My V.I.P. list doesn't have pipsqueak on it," the Cyclops snarled, hardly glancing at Axel with his one dark eye.

If Pax wasn't on the line, Kally would have immediately apologized and found out if she could outsprint monsters in their best club wear. But Pax _was_ on the line. Plus, Axel remained calm. He said, "Try Axel Pax."

The Cyclops turned his full attention on Axel, eyebrow furrowing with difficult thought.

Axel put his hands back into his pockets, and sighed. "Head of the Triple As," he said aloofly.

The Cyclops dropped his clipboard. Kally didn't know what was more terrifying: the Cyclops itself or the fact that its eye widened with fanboy excitement. " _Axel Pax!_ " he squealed. Several monsters in line whispered among themselves and peered around one another at Axel. The Cyclops continued to cause a ruckus that made Kally _very_ uncomfortable. "The guitarist for Orpheus Metal! You guys were _so_ good! We haven't had a concert as good as that one with the goats—"

Axel held up one hand. "That was nothing."

"Nothing!" the Cyclops roared. "When are you doing a reunion tour!?"

Axel raised an eyebrow. "Our lead singer is dead."

"Right—okay—when he's feeling better, you do a reunion tour," the Cyclops insisted. Kally had forgotten that dead meant different things to monsters and people. Much less permanent.

"Yea… we're going in now. You don't need to see her ID," Axel stated.

At first, Kally thought Axel was using the Mist to confuse the Cyclops, but then she realized he really didn't have to.

"Of course not! She with you—go in! Go in!" the Cyclops was bustling with joy, but froze. "Wait."

For a second, Kally saw Axel's jaw tighten.

Then the Cyclops picked up his clipboard and shoved it at Axel. To her horror, she realized it was blushing. "Could you… um… my son… Clops, he'd love an autograph…"

Axel bit back a laugh. He took the clipboard and scribbled on it. The Cyclops's face brightened again with happiness. It was weird seeing a monster like this. She was used to them just being… well, monsters from stories. Not fanboys.

Kally didn't realize she'd been standing behind Axel until he moved. After he handed the clipboard back to the Cyclops, he quarter-turned to her. In a flash, he'd wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. When she lost her balance and stumbled into his side, she almost choked. Axel didn't give her time to react. He was already leading them into the club.

As the Cyclops opened the door for them, the thump of a subwoofer felt like a physical smack. The lighting inside was dim, with strings of more purple and blue bulbs blinking in descending patterns from the ceilings. Half of the club was what she expected from what she'd seen on TV: there was a bar along one wall, with two Gegenees—six-armed giants—as bartenders. Their collective twenty four hands flashed across the bar, sometimes filling a monster's glass with nectar, sometimes slipping some drachmas or some gold aureus into the cash register, sometimes smacking a thief away from their tip jar. In front of the bar, there were stools in various sizes, apparently on some sort of rolly system, since they had ones that could accommodate the smallest half-blood and… not the tallest giant, but there was definitely one at least a sixteen feet tall seated at the bar. That chair must have been made out of Titanium.

The ceiling was expansive—she assumed—to accommodate all the giants. Kally gawked when she glanced up. There was a patio ringing the second story. A woman with leathery bat wings leaned against the second story banister to flirt with the sixteen foot giant, whose head was almost even with her. Others sat at tables along the patio, more monsters perched on the banister, and a few were hanging from the edges to chat with the bartenders. Dark shapes darted through the blue and purple light strings. The ceiling itself appeared to glow a faint green and ripple how Kally imagined an Aurora would if it had a tide.

Opposite to the entrance, past the chairs and a clustered dance floor, was a pool. Telekhines, merfolk, and icthyocentaurs frolicked about the water, splashed other patrons, and did trick flips.

She realized how happy she was to be tucked protectively against Axel when she saw the other wall. There were humans mingling comfortably among the monsters, but there was also a cage. Inside, two half-bloods battled with sword and shield. If one tried to back away from the other, or tried to rest, a Scythian Dracanae would jab them with a cow prod. A few monsters seemed actively interested, but the half-bloods seemed to be more of a backdrop.

Axel dropped his head down to her ear. "They're actors," he assured. "Luke and I once fought in there."

The name Luke sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it. Especially not with Axel's face so close. Unfortunately, the reek of smoke shattered any illusion of giddiness.

Axel led them towards two empty seats at the bar beside a guy who had passed out on the counter with his hands on his head. Axel didn't sit down, but instead leaned against the bar like he was going to order them something. Kally debated on whether or not she could get up the courage to tell Axel she wasn't old enough to drink, then realized how stupid she would sound if she pointed that out.

As soon as Axel's elbow made contact with the bar, the man beside him sat up. "Ah! I'd recognize that smell _anywhere!_ "

"Anywhere! Anywhere!" a second voice cheered.

"AXEL PAX IS IN THE HOUSE!" screamed a third voice.

At the shout, Kally felt Axel clench her shoulder. A few monsters nearby cheered.

They were swarmed in seconds.

Kally instinctively went for her messenger bag. Axel's hand slipped from her shoulder to grab her wrist. For a sickening moment, she realized that was the second she needed to defend herself. He'd taken it from her.

Then the monsters started talking about how great a band Orpheus Metal was, how _Reptilian Rap_ wasn't the same—when were Pax and Axel going to perform again? Did they still do the circus performance stuff too? Axel released her wrist and rested his hand back onto her shoulder.

None of this felt real—well, the monsters felt real enough, but the fact that they were utterly mesmerized with Axel, and Axel had to wave off and divert question after question, promising he'd talk to the rest of the band soon—

"Is the Leonis Caput ever coming back?"

Axel's calm smile melted. His eyes flared and a low growl emitted from his throat, though that could have been the music. He abruptly turned back to the bar, ignoring the Empousa that asked.

Kally had never really gotten over the fact that her first monster was an Empousa. Although Axel clearly didn't want her to reach into her messenger bag, she kept one hand on the strap for quick access.

Once all the fuss had quieted down, they returned their attention to the man who started the shouting. Kally decided she shouldn't bother gaping anymore, but she was surprised to find this man hadn't just been the originator of the first shout, but the second and third as well.

He had three faces, one in the front and one on either side. He wore a black shirt, jeans, and his brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. There were two gags tied around his neck.

"Hello Tresus," Axel greeted, leaning his elbow back against the bar.

"Hello!"

"Hello!"

"Goodbye!"

The middle face frowned. His right face, the one facing Kally, winked. Like he was trying to outsmart himself, he slowly stretched his arms above his head, then snapped them down to reach the gags.

"Help! Help! I'm being repressed!" cried the one on the right, biting at Tresus's fingers as he shoved a gag into the mouth.

"Left faces have rights t—mmmm!" said the left one as—Kally assumed—he gagged it as well.

"Much better," Tresus's last mouth said. He relaxed against the bar. The right face scowled at the middle and made Kally wonder, if the left face was also scowling at the middle, did that make him cross eyed? She'd have to remember that for Pax later.

Apparently this was completely normal, because Axel bit back a smile and waited patiently.

"I'm not sure I like the new Mist look," Tresus said, sizing Axel up. "Who were you going for? Like, a Luke-look? Or an Achilles look?" All of his eyes flicked to Kally. "All you half-bloods look the same to me—here, drinks are on me."

He snapped his fingers and the closest Gegenee slid two shot glasses down the bar. They were full of golden liquid.

Axel cleared his throat.

Tresus rolled all six of his eyes. After the first roll, the eyes on his right face continued to go in circles. Kally was scared she might get sick if she stared at them for too long.

He snapped his fingers again. The Gegeneee huffed at him before setting two black mugs down beside the shot glasses. A thick dark liquid sloshed inside and made Kally's stomach reconsider ever getting hungry again.

Axel picked up the mug to hand it to her.

Kally stared from the cup, back up to Axel's calm face. Her boundaries were already blown beyond recovery. She was a sixteen year old half-blood standing in a bar for _monsters_ and evil half-bloods while talking to some three-faced guy for information because one of her best friends was missing. This was where she put her foot down. She wasn't going to try some alcoholic—

"Kally, it's hot chocolate," Axel said.

She blinked. "Oh," she squeaked while taking the mug.

Axel smiled, picking up his own mug to sip.

Tresus watched this interaction with rapt curiosity. The right face tried to mumble something into the gag, but Tresus smacked it. "Ow!" he muttered, then shook his head. He smiled at Kally. "So, are you a snack or a girlfriend?"

 _Snack or girlfriend_. Kally didn't like the lack of grey area between those two descriptors. Plus, she didn't know if snack was monster slang or literal. So, when in doubt, she uttered the ingenious, "What?"

An uncomfortable moment passed where Axel didn't take a lead in the conversation. When she glanced over, she found him taking a long swig from his mug, peering at her over the rim. Then she realized, in horror, he _wasn't_ going to answer.

At first, she was baffled how anyone could mistake her for Axel's girlfriend. Hades, he'd turned down _the Goddess of Love_ like it was nothing. She figured Axel could probably convince Hera to cheat on her husband if Axel wanted. Then Kally became uncomfortably aware of Axel's arm around her shoulder, the smell of smoke, and how securely she'd huddled into his side. Considering how popular Axel seemed to be here, the monsters that would smile at Axel, then scowl at her might not have _just_ been doing it because she was a half-blood.

She swallowed, attempting to put on a confidence that Merry would find more than mock-worthy. "He's _my_ date," she stated.

Tresus laughed. While Kally was happy this meant her internal panic wasn't visible, it also made her want to cower behind Axel and apologize for being so bold. Axel smiled faintly and squeezed her shoulder.

"You Pax boys love your strong women," Tresus chuckled. His right face's eyes were wide with disbelief. Kally couldn't look at them or she'd get indignant.

 _Ah_ ¸ Kally thought, _so it wouldn't be convincing had I not answered myself._ She needed to set Axel and Pax down for a _how-to-give-warning_ class after this.

Tresus tossed back one of the golden shots. "You two have the club in an uproar. Now all we need is Jak-Jak or Alabaster to show up," he said.

Axel set his mug down on the bar. "So my brother did come by the bar?" he asked casually.

"Hm? Oh yea, he and Lamia were here… yesterday was it?" Tresus reached up to scratch above his ear, placed further back on his head than a normal person to accommodate the faces. His right face's eyes crinkled like it wanted to smile in derpy pleasure at the scratches. Tresus's main face looked confused. "I don't really leave the bar, so I have a hard time telling time. But he was going on and on about how she'd gotten this sweet new place."

Axel's grip on her shoulder became uncomfortably tight. "I'd love to see it," he said.

"And I'm sure she'd love you to see it." Tresus nodded, throwing his hands to either side in a gesture of helplessness. "But unfortunately there are rumors that you and your brother have gone soft on the wrong kind of half-bloods. How bad would it look if I just gave you information on where someone lives… without a fight." He folded his hands into his lap and grinned.

Axel let go of Kally's shoulder, sighing.

In a flash of motion, he smashed Tresus's head into the bar.

Kally jumped, waiting for some of Tresus's monster friends to rush them. The closest Gegeenee snarled and threw a bar towel at Axel.

Axel caught the towel. "Sorry Dean," he muttered. Axel picked Tresus's head up by his hair, neatly laid the towel under his face, then slammed it back into the bar-top.

The Gegeenee turned its attention to other customers down the bar. Everyone else continued to order drinks and socialize like it was _Trash-Tresus-Tuesday_.

At Kally's stare, Axel shrugged sheepishly. "Dean doesn't like blood on his counters." Axel's hand was covering Tresus's right face, leaving his middle face crunched in pain.

"You didn't have to make it so real!" he complained.

"Kally, threaten him," Axel instructed.

"What?!" she asked, still stunned that _no one_ found this out of the ordinary. Sure, these were monsters, but shouldn't they have some kind of code of ethics or—

Tresus swung an arm back and Axel had to use both hands to keep him down. "It'll be good practice," he encouraged through grit teeth. "Go for it."

From what Kally remembered, she'd never threatened anyone in her life. Movies—she'd seen it there. Her best friend, Merry, threatened her all the time with social humiliation and abandonment whenever Kally was being a coward about something.

By nature, Kally didn't feel very scary. The only weapon she had on her was an imperial gold discus; however, in a club full of monsters that _hated_ holy metals, when Axel had been so careful to assure they didn't _look_ like they had weapons on them, she figured flashing her discus and saying she forgot to put it in the _Weapon Check_ … that would probably be bad. Still, it was all she had.

Kally tossed her whole bag a few inches into the air. She hoped the magic that changed the Argonaut statue into a weapon would activate and she wouldn't end up spilling ambrosia squares all over the ground. Tendrils of smoke seeped from her bag as she caught it. A few monsters nearby twitched and glanced around, as though they'd gotten a chill.

Holding the bag so only Tresus could see inside, she whispered, "You see this discus? It'll b the last thing you see if you don't tell us where Pax is."

Pax would scold her later for being unoriginal, but she couldn't think of anything else.

Tresus's central set of eyes blinked, unimpressed. His other face was, fortunately, smashed under Axel's palm, so she didn't have to face the humiliation of _two_ skeptical expressions. He glanced at Axel with a grunt, "I'm calling it now. She's not your girlfriend. You're eating her later."

Axel jammed his palm below Tresus's hairline. Although she didn't see Axel pull out a weapon, Tresus squealed like he'd stabbed him. "Okay! Holy Algea—Axel—gods! They're off 53rd street, in the cellar of a house up for eviction. _You'll_ be able to see her magic from three blocks away."

Axel smacked Tresus's left forehead into the bar before releasing him. In a tone completely contradictory to the action, he said, "Thank you Tresus. Seriously—here—" Axel waved down Dean. The Gegenee slid another shot glass of golden liquid into the bar cloth. "I hope this helps your headache."

As Tresus sat up and shook his head, Axel set several drachma on the counter. Tresus grinned goofily. His right face crunched in offense at being smashed. "It always does," he said. "Tell Pax he still owes me a staring contest. Lamia dragged him off before he could cough up."

Axel took one last swig of his hot chocolate. Kally swirled hers, aware she hadn't taken a sip. Figuring this would probably be the last bit of sustenance she'd have before a fight with whatever monster Lamia was, she took a deep chug and yelped.

The chocolate was thick—more like a syrup consistency—rich, and _spicy._ For someone who subsisted off of microwave dinners and her mother's bland Irish cooking, Kally felt like she'd just swallowed the engine of a running fighter airplane. She shoved the mug back onto the counter and frantically searched for a glass of water, debating on flagging down Dean or taking the easy route and making a run for the pool.

Axel laced his arm back over her shoulder. "You—oh—" He must have noticed how red her face had gotten and coughed back a laugh.

"You poisoned me," she choked.

"It's Mayan hot chocolate. It's made with peppers. Dean knows I like things hot," he explained like this was as funny as the time Calex caught Pax stealing his wallet.

Kally fanned her face. If this wasn't Axel and they weren't looking for Pax, she'd start biological warfare with his next meal.

Dean slid another shot glass down the table, this one filled with something frothy and white.

"Drink it," Axel instructed. "It's probably cream."

 _Probably_ scared her at a monster bar, but she was desperate. Kally downed the shot without hesitation. Although her mouth still felt awful, it dropped from Tartarus levels of pain to _pissing off Clarisse_ levels of pain.

Tresus examined her with that goofy grin. "Yea—" He turned to Axel. "She couldn't handle you. Cute though. I hope she survives the night."

Once she could focus on more than the volcano in her mouth, Kally frowned. She wondered how scary Lamia was if Tresus were worried about her dying. When she felt Axel's hand squeeze her shoulder, she felt a different type of heat flare up her cheeks. Tresus wasn't talking about Lamia.

This was another comment Axel wouldn't answer, but there was _no_ way she could respond to that. Instead, she squeaked, "Let's go get Pax."

Huge Disclaimer: If you haven't read anything else from _Traitors of Olympus,_ don't worry about this message. For those of you who _HAVE_ read it, in particular _Blood of a Mayan_ , I wrote this short story before I wrote _Blood of a Mayan_ , so I was experimenting with characters, plot, and magic use. I hadn't done enough research to properly portray one character (so I apologize for inaccuracies with his magic in the next act or two). There are some plot reveals you've already read (this was the original way I wanted to do them! :D), but there is also some character building that never comes up in the official series. Regardless, I hope you enjoy! Once I'm done posting this (3 acts I think?) I will resume with the end of _Blood of a Mayan_. Thanks for your patience on that!

Oh, and if you haven't picked up on this, there's a lot of Kalex… wait, that doesn't work. That's a character. And Kax can refer to either brother… um…. Axlypso? Sure? Wait, that could mean Calypso… augh. Okay, Axssand. Regardless, there's lots of Axssand fluff. I wrote this as a Christmas gift to my editor, Mel, who ships them hard. If you ship them, congrats! If it's kind of weird to you, like it is to me (XD I love you Mel!) then don't worry. There's some blood, horror, and friendship fluff to distract you.

Thanks for reading!

1 I don't think she counts Aphrodite, since that was… godly manipulation of emotions… Foul play on Aphrodite's part!

2 Reference to events in _Blood of a Mayan_.


	2. Act II

Act II

Several monsters threw fits when Axel left so quickly. " _And with a half-blood? Augh, I thought he'd have better taste!"_ the Empousa from before complained. Kally knew, to play her part, she should have upturned her chin or maybe insulted the Empousa with something witty like, _"maybe if you weren't such a sucker he'd want someone like you_ —" No—no that wasn't right. She couldn't begin to focus with Tresus's last comment.

Once they were out of sight of the club, Axel let go of Kally's shoulder, reinserting his hands into his pockets. The air felt chilly without his warmth.

Kally swallowed hard. "So, you're not going to explain anything that happened back there?"

Axel shrugged. "Tresus is cursed by Hecate to speak three options at all times: one mouth will always lie, one tells the truth, and one speaks jibberish. Which mouth says what changes depending on the day, so you need to be careful."

The thought made Kally flinch. "So Pax's location could be a lie?"

"I'm pretty sure he was speaking what he thought was the truth," Axel said.

Upon considering the comment about her being able to handle Axel, she felt like she should get offended. She was too embarrassed to. Instead, she brought up the more relevant topic. "Is Lamia the monster you suspected?"

Axel nodded. "She's a magic user and a monster. Listen to me carefully when we get into her lair. She likes traps. I will be able to see them, but she'll likely hide them from you with the Mist…" A frown tugged at his mouth. "I was worried about her coming after Pax, so we made a protocol. There was no way Lamia could pass up showing Pax off at the _Monster Mash_ and we both knew Tresus couldn't keep his mouth shut…"

Now didn't seem the time to push Axel and ask exactly why Lamia had a vendetta against Pax, but she could come up with a number of reasons. Pax had the beautiful ability to know exactly how to piss people off. She'd never heard of a monster _capturing_ a demigod and keeping them, but obviously Pax must have been alive to go into the bar, right?

Normally, Axel would bark out the battle orders by now. At his silence, Kally grew uneasy. "Uh—so how do we fight her?"

"Stay close to me, but if things go wrong, focus on getting Pax out of there. He's most important."

Kally really didn't like how Axel didn't make eye contact. They should be focusing on the up and coming attack, but without his typical instructions, Kally had to find something to say. "So... we're not talking about the fact that you were in a band?" she asked.

Axel smiled faintly as they approached the van. "The guitarist and backup singer."

"And?"

"And what?" he asked while opening his door.

"You're not going to tell me anything more about that? Or that you're really popular at a bar for _monsters_? Or-"

"Nope."

* * *

Lamia's street wasn't far. Axel parked a block away, so they could approach silently on foot. Kally would never have been able to pick out the right building. _All_ of the townhouses on 53rd street were dilapidated. Ivy overtook the tiny garden lots. Crackles along the pavement preceded the crumbling stone walls encasing each house, _like the walls of forgotten pigpens, where the corpses of the neglected and starved rot._

Kally trembled. That was much darker than her normal predictions.

Most of the houses didn't have glass in their windows, or if they did, it was broken. _How could a street this ruined exist so close to the city? Do the mortals not see it?_ Kally thought about DC and realized, you don't need the Mist to hide the impoverished in plain sight.

The house Axel stopped in front of had a low, wrap-around porch, partially caved in. The door was wide open, revealing nothing but the blackness of an unlit interior.

"This is it," Axel said. He had less weapons than she'd ever seen him take into battle. Strangest, when they were suiting up in the van, he'd picked up his _Leonis Caput_ helmet, toyed with it, then set it back down. He _hated_ going near that thing.

"How do you know?" Kally asked, unsure she wanted the answer. A part of her hoped the Mist was concealing some beautiful mansion here that Axel had the privilege of seeing, but she doubted it.

"This," he pointed at something she couldn't see, "is an alarm spell. It will alert Lamia that someone is inside the barrier. If we're lucky, she'll be out and have to return. If she's in, she'll have time to set up an ambush."

As soon as he finished explaining, Axel stepped forward. "Come on."

* * *

The house was silent. Her footsteps groaned through the floorboards, regardless of how carefully she mimicked Axel's soundless progression. Kally reached to withdraw one of her glow sticks-figuring Lamia would already know they were there, so trying to be stealthy was kinda like covering up a security camera after you already robbed the bank. Axel stopped her though. The window frames hardly filtered in light, but Axel crept like he was trained to do this blindfolded. He took her hand to lead her through the entry hallway.

Although she wasn't afraid of Python appearing out of the dim anymore, darkness still left Kally clammy. She couldn't see anything but shadows up the front stairwell, or into any of the open doors along the hallway. _All_ the doors were open. They would never hear someone move from one room to the next, not if that person was as quiet as Axel. Lamia could be anywhere.

There was minimal furnishing in the house. She could see some ruined couches and chairs when they passed one doorway. Cans and bottles cluttered the corners under heavy layers of dust. _Squatters_ , Kally assumed. Thinking about Axel and Pax living in a place like this weighed her down with guilt. She should have offered for them to stay at her house. It would be weeks before her parents would notice or realize they weren't John's friends. Plus, John's reaction. John's reaction would be beautiful.

The stairs to the basement were inside the second door down the hallway. Axel's grip tightened on hers as he led them down. Occasionally, he'd have to let go, to crouch and examine the area. Kally didn't know how he could see anything. Without windows from the outside, she was trying to quell her mounting panic at her blindness.

A bronze dagger latched to Axel's back acted as their only light source. She hadn't noticed it as much with the window light above. Boxes, newspapers, and trash littered the basement, worse than the upstairs hallway. No sign of Pax. No sign of another exit.

Without hesitation, Axel walked towards one of the stone walls. Kally trailed after him, the hand not in his clutching her Argonaut statue, ready to smash a monster's face in. He didn't slow down when he got close to the wall. For a horrified moment, Kally wondered if Lamia _was_ using the Mist against him—that he might knock himself out in a duel against some ghostly interior decoration.

Kally squeaked a warning, but Axel walked right _through_ the wall. The stone dissolved into green smoke. Behind it, there was another set of stairs.

Something was different about these. As before, Kally couldn't see down into what she assumed was a cellar—but there was something down there. She thought about the collapsed sectors of the house and wondered what it would be like to be stuck down there, stairs gone with no other way out.

She shuddered.

As they crept down, a chill slithered up Kally's leggings and choked her with foreboding. She knew the temperature was supposed to drop when you descended, and she knew cellars should be chilly in comparison to the level above, but it felt like she'd stepped into an industrial meat freezer and was about to be diced and packaged.

The stench of rotten meat and cat urine slowed Kally's steps. _A really dirty meat freezer_ , she corrected. Although they tried to be quiet as they went down the flight of stairs, their footsteps resounded back to them from below. Other than that, all she could hear was the subtle drip of a leak.

When they reached the last step, Kally trembled. Despite their experiences against Python and Phobetor, there was a _wrongness_ to this place she hadn't felt before.

The cellar was a single, unfinished room. The walls were cement; the floor dirt with a sewage grate in the center. A single torch cast shadows along the boxes and empty jars leaning on the right wall. Pax's duster jacket was hanging from a hook on the wall, beside a sledge hammer.

In Pax's absence, she imagined his running commentary, _"A cellar? How cliché! Couldn't you have gotten creative and made the creepy room a bad-ass ball pit_ — _"_

Then she saw him.

Kally wanted to cry out, to run to Pax's side, but Axel immediately put a hand out in front of her.

Beside the boxes and trash was a five-by-five foot metal cage. One of those upside down water drippers was latched onto one of the crossbars, like you'd give a hamster. On the metal floor was a matching food bowl filled with Reese's Sticks wrappers. In one corner of the cage, she could see a shivering teenager.

Pax's hair was disheveled, like it always was. His _Camp Othrys_ shirt was torn at the shoulder, the green blackened with dried blood. That shoulder slumped awkwardly down, and that arm lay motionless beside him. His knees were crunched up against his chest. He kept his other arm tucked against him. Kally assumed he'd have that fist balled, maybe tucked under an armpit for warmth, but his functional hand was delicately placed atop one knee.

When he heard them, Pax didn't look up. He flinched and said, "It's not going to work this time, Lamia. I'm not going to fall for it again." His voice quivered with false bravado.

"Ajax—" Axel whispered. Kally could see he shivered as well, but she assumed it wasn't from the cold. He cleared his throat. This time, he addressed Kally, "There are Mist traps all over this room. Step _exactly_ where I tell you to, and nowhere else—"

"I can't hear you—" Pax hissed loudly. He shook his head, keeping his eyes on the ground. "See? _La la la la_!"

Kally could feel tears warming her cheeks. To accompany those words, Pax _should_ have been holding his hands to his ears, scrunching his face into a cute expression of protest, and walking back and forth. From what she could see, he couldn't even stand.

Axel took a step forward, carefully lifting one foot high like he was avoiding a tripwire. He pointed at some invisible point he'd stepped over, and used his other hand to point at a floor tile. She tore her eyes from Pax, trying to focus. _Get Pax out of here_ , she reminded herself, _that's the most important thing. You need to avoid the Mist traps first, right? Then you'll get to Pax._

Although she didn't want to, she found herself whispering, "Pax, it's—it's us—"

" _Shut up!"_ Pax screamed. " _How dare you use her voice!"_

Kally jumped and put a hand over her mouth. She quickly stepped how Axel directed. He took two more steps forward, then dropped to the ground and crawled. Once on the other side of whatever invisible barrier was there, he leveled his hand with it, so she knew how low to stay.

While she followed, Axel cleared his throat. "Ajax," Axel said. "The first real battle we had against Romans, you and Chris both soiled your pants, but were so scared of admitting it to one another that you used the same lie about falling in pegasus manu-"

Pax's eyes snapped up from the ground with a crazed hope. He let out a sob of relief. "Axel? Kally? Is that really you—you jerk!" Although tears were cleaning some of the dirt off his cheeks, Pax managed to look offended. "How could you tell that story in front of Kally? R-r-remember th-that t-time—" Kally was sure Pax had a hilarious story to embarrass Axel, but sobs cut him off. He shifted onto his knees, inching towards them, his limp arm dragging across the cage and his other hand cradled against his chest.

For the last trap, Axel gently placed a hand on either of Kally's shoulders and shifted her two feet to the right, forward, then a few feet to the left. The warmth of his touch made Kally remember they were okay, they could do this, and they were almost there.

As soon as Axel released her, he sprinted to the cage. She followed directly after. Axel knelt down across from Pax, grabbing the bars. When Kally caught up to them, the look on Axel's face made her tremble more than the cold. His jaw clenched tightly in rage and his eyes blazed.

Kally dropped to her knees beside him, reaching out to touch Pax who leaned against the bars. When she touched his face—sweaty with fever—he nuzzled into her palm.

"There's no lock—" Pax sobbed.

At his despair, Kally glanced at the cage. There _wasn't_ a lock or an opening.

"Yes, there is dumbass," Axel snapped. "You can pick it—"

Pax extended his mobile hand. His fingers were bent at odd angles and the entire hand was bruised.

Kally grabbed her mouth again. _The sledge hammer_ , she thought. A wave of nausea made her swallow. She kept one hand on Pax's face, to assure herself he was still there, and fumbled in her messenger bag for some ambrosia with the other.

"I-I can't—she—she broke—smashed m-my—" Pax couldn't get the sentence out.

Finally, Kally found the ambrosia square. She withdrew it and went to break off a piece—

"Give him the whole thing," Axel directed.

Will said _never_ to eat a full square of ambrosia. It would burn a demigod up. "Wha—"

"He can handle it," Axel snapped.

She didn't want to question Axel, but hesitated. Under her touch, she could feel Pax nod his head in agreement.

Cautiously, she pressed the ambrosia to Pax's lips.

As he chewed weakly, Kally felt around his injuries with her magic. "What did she do to you?" she whispered in disbelief.

Pax relaxed as the ambrosia took effect. His sobs quieted and he smiled weakly. "I used to have a really bad taste in women before I started to like you," he said.

Kally stared at him for a moment. "Taste in… She—she's—"

"My ex-girlfriend. Yea," Pax finished. "Ex-ghoul-friend."

"We need to relocate your shoulder," Axel said, interrupting Kally's ability to comprehend how _dumb_ Pax could be, the semantics of how that could work, or why she _wanted_ to know how monster-demigod relationships worked. "Lay down."

Without protest, Pax lay flat on his back with his knees tucked up; he couldn't stretch them out in the cage. Kally let him bite down on her messenger bag's strap as she lifted his dislocated arm at a 90 degree angle and placed her feet against the bars for leverage. She held Pax's limp, but unbroken hand with both of hers. "You ready?" she asked him.

He nodded, already whimpering.

She gently _pulled_ on his arm.

Axel stood vigilant, jaw still clenched.

Pax screamed into the messenger bag. _I'm sorry Pax_ — _I'm sorry_ — _we have to_ — _I'm sorry_ , she thought until she felt the arm _clunk_. Both she and Pax relaxed. He exhaled shakily.

"Thank you," he whispered.

"Now his fingers," Axel immediately instructed.

Pax gaped, "By the Titans, Axel, a Fury would give me more time-"

" _Fix his fingers_ ," Axel snapped at Kally.

At first, Kally wanted to protest. Pax was sickly white, had taken more ambrosia than any demigod was recommended to, and looked ready to pass out. A water break might do him some good.

But Axel's tone scared Kally. Worse, she realized _why_ he was so impatient.

Something was coming.

The walls began to glow faintly green. A rumbling, like an approaching storm, shook the building. The sickening reek of blood permeated the cellar.

Pax wailed. "Leave! Get out of here—please—"

"No," Axel hissed, examining the walls. He placed a hand against one. Where he touched, the glow darkened to a turquoise, then muted back into a concrete slab. "This trap wasn't meant for us," he said. "She's not expecting to fight my magic."

Pax shook his head. "N-No—get out—Kally, make him lea—" his voice choked.

From behind Axel, a figure materialized.

Kally could only focus on the eyes at first. They beamed neon green and, when the woman blinked, her slits folded vertically. Her face was distorted and leathery, with plaits of black hair dangling long down her back. She wore the dark folds of a mourner's toga, reptilian claws peaking from the ends of the material. Blood smeared her chin.

She frowned. "You're not Alabaster," she hissed in disappointment.


	3. Act III

Note from Author: For those who have read _Blood of a Mayan_ ¸ this is where you're going to see a few familiar "reveals." This was the original way I experimented with doing the reveals and I hope you enjoy this rendition. And I hope you enjoy seeing how I experimented with a certain someone's magic. ^^

Act III

"You tortured my brother as a trap for Alabaster," Axel stated. His shoulders trembled. As Kally watched, Axel snapped his wrist to the side. Three obsidian blades appeared in his hands. She'd never seen those before and didn't know from where Axel got them. Currently, she didn't care.

Pax had huddled up against the cage beside her, whining at them to leave. They couldn't though. Even if they wanted to abandon Pax, Lamia was standing between them and the only exit and neither Kally nor Axel had any intention of leaving Pax behind.

Kally grabbed Pax's hand. Although terrified and shaking, she sang softly while setting his index finger into place.

He squeaked and shook his head. "No— _ay_!—there's—there's no time— _ay_!"

Lamia's eyes narrowed into vertical slits. "I'm not letting you take my bait away. Besides, Ajax and I needed some… catching up to do after he left me without a goodbye." She smiled, revealing a row of fangs.

Axel laughed.

Kally balked at the reaction. She hoped he was just buying them time, but he sounded genuinely mirthful. In the dim flicker of torchlight, Axel's eyes had taken on a glistening golden hue.

"I'm going to rip your heart out, witch, and I'm going to eat it," Axel said with a crazed smile. "I'll absorb your soul and steal your powers and—when I'm done—you won't even remember the sight of your dead children."

The rumbling ceased and the green gleam of the walls dimmed. Lamia tilted her head to one side and sniffed. "You don't smell like a half-blood," she said.

Axel reached towards his face with the blades.

Pax broke Kally out of her paralysis. "Kally!"

She glanced back down, focusing on his fingers. She'd healed one. The palm was still shattered, and the others were still broken. If she couldn't concentrate, she couldn't heal. Despite Axel acting _terrifying_ right now, they'd have to trust him to keep Lamia occupied. She exhaled and used her magic to feel around, where each fracture was, where each splinter had gone, where the ambrosia was speeding along the healing process. Fast. Faster than she'd ever seen. Why wasn't he burning up?

" _And even though I'm walking through the valley of shadow I will hold tight to the hand of Him_ —" Kally sang.

Over her singing, she could hear Lamia chant, " _Incantar-_ "

And Axel cut her off, " _K'aak'!_ " [footnote 1]

An explosion roared behind Kally.

In the corner of her eye, she could see Axel slam into the far wall. Except, he didn't smack bodily into it as she'd expected. He gracefully twisted in the air, hit the wall with his feet, snagged the sledgehammer leaning there, and pounced towards Lamia like gravity had dissolved.

"You think you can kill me with—" Lamia laughed.

A loud _thunk_ resounded in the cellar. Lamia hissed.

" _B'alam_ ," Axel snarled. Something sizzled and the reek of blood became gag-worthy. The torchlight flickered to a deep blue.

Kally wasn't even sure who was casting what spell. She didn't know Axel _could_ cast magic. In all their fighting, she'd never seen him do this before, just minor Mist manipulation.

She continued to sing, shocked Pax's anatomy was responding so rapidly. Already, she'd finished up his palm. " _Whose love will comfort me and when all hope is gone and I've been wounded in the battle_ — _"_

"Give me another ambrosia square," Pax said and reached for her messenger bag with the arm that had been dislocated.

Kally didn't hear at first. She had tunnel-visioned on her healing but flinched when she registered what he did.

"Wha—no—" She swatted at his hand, but he was too quick. Pax popped another square into his mouth.

Kally gaped. "Pax—no—no! Spit it out—you'll—"

Under her touch, his skin felt fiery. His face crunched with pain. "Tastes like candy," he croaked. "Keep singing. You're almost done tormenting my bones."

 _You'll die_ , she thought. His cheeks were flushed with the heat. _Two squares of ambrosia._ She wondered if her singing could keep his stomach from catching fire and destroying him from the inside.

But the healing factor kicked in instantly. Requiring barely any direction, the bones were mending.

Lights blazed behind them. Magic spit back and forth in turquoise and green, Axel's single-word commands cutting off Lamia's Latin incantations. Another rumbling shook the building and black gas hazed the cellar.

Pax's eyes widened. "Hold your breath!" he hissed.

Kally felt something soft flick against her ear and she yelped. She expected Lamia to be right behind her, reptilian claws posed to break her neck. Instead, she twisted into Axel's legs as he crouched beside her. She couldn't see him very well in the smoke and blue-green lighting, but he faced Lamia, hands held up like he was about to catch the ceiling. She really hoped he _wasn't_ about to catch the ceiling.

Something twitched from the back of Axel's belt and Kally realized there was _something_ hanging there.

Axel shouted, _"Hanil! Ch'a'ik ilk' hanil!_ " [footnote 2] and the smoke around them lightened to a grey.

Pax exhaled.

On the list of ways Axel had endangered and then saved her life today, preventing her from inhaling poisonous gas would have to go _way_ up there, as she was in no position to hold her breath. Kally hadn't registered how much of a toll the healing was taking on her until she tried to slow her breathing and found she couldn't.

Lamia knelt—sort of. Her legs were a pile of swirling black sand from the knees down, already reforming. A sledgehammer lay in pieces about her. The calm amusement was gone from her face, replaced by irritation. "Your meddling has ceased to entertain me whelp. You are a favored of Hecate but I am one of her daughters. Your savage sorcery cannot save—"

Axel stumbled backwards. For a horrified moment, she thought he might collapse, then she saw the two strategic things he'd done: he kicked her messenger bag over, knocking her Argonaut statue free and he caught himself on the cage, whispering, " _hook'ol_." [footnote 3] His grip glowed dimly, and a lock appeared in the upper right hand corner of the bars.

Pax gasped at the sight. Although his fingers _should not_ have fully healed, he snagged two bobby pins from Kally's hair and clamored to the lock.

As Kally slipped her hand around the Argonaut statue, Axel righted himself and stepped towards Lamia. He snapped those obsidian blades out again. With a snarl, he pounced. Lamia wasn't formed enough to defend herself. When Axel hit, they rolled, reptilian claws flailing and—

—Kally gagged—

—Axel bit Lamia's shoulder.

This was a first for Kally, though maybe seeing Axel take a chunk out of someone's skin would bring them closer as friends.

Axel withdrew his mouth, blood gushing over his lips. Kally didn't even know monsters could bleed. From what she could see, Lamia's shoulder wasn't reforming and this was the first time she'd heard Lamia cry out in pain.

But it was a distraction. As Axel posed his blades to cut out Lamia's heart, a green rune glowed above his raised hand.

The lock clicked. While the cage swung open, Kally could hear Pax's desperate, "Stop him!"

"—I'll hang your body as testimony to what happens when you touch one of the Triple A," Axel snarled. He went to plunge his daggers into Lamia's chest.

Kally pitched her Argonaut statue. She didn't have time to do a full-powered wind up, but the metal still hissed into a discus, spinning right at Lamia's head.

" _Incanta_ —" the monster chanted to activate the rune. Instead, she got a full mouth of imperial gold.

Lamia exploded into dust. The rune above Axel faded. Axel's knives clattered harmlessly into the floor. He knelt there, stunned at the dust all over his body.

Although Kally could barely make him out in the turquoise torchlight and grey mist, he looked terrible. His clothing was ripped to pieces from Lamia's claws. There were burn marks all over his forearms and—she thought—some on his face, likely from one of the trap explosions. Blood trailed down from his jaws and… his eyes glistened a brilliant gold—like Pax's hazel eye if it were as bright as the Bat Signal.

Pax crawled out of the cage towards Axel.

Axel dropped his blades and dragged his little brother into a hug. "Ajax—damn it—you should have let me eat her. She'd never reincarnate to hurt you or Alabaster again—"

Although this was not the time, Kally wanted to point out she would have given Lamia that discus sandwich regardless of Pax's warning. Instead, she resisted the urge to ask, _"What the fuck_ " and crawled to hug the boys.

Axel slipped an arm out to pull her into the embrace.

* * *

The boys were a mess. Despite Pax's false protests against it, Axel carried him all the way to the van. Axel told Kally to wait inside while he cleaned Pax off. Despite her attempts to give them privacy, she could hear Pax sobbing about what Lamia had done to him. Kally found herself wishing she'd let Axel… stop the monster from reincarnating. She wondered if there was some way she could have saved him from that rune and… what? Made it so he could eat Lamia's heart. She shuddered. She knew she would have to ask, but she wasn't sure she wanted to.

After about fifteen minutes, a full package of _Wet Ones,_ and a change of clothing, Axel set Pax down on one of the couches in the back beside Kally. Pax smelled a lot better. From what Kally gathered from eavesdropping, Lamia hadn't been generous with bathroom breaks. Axel hadn't given Pax a change of shirt yet, so she could see how sickly pale his normally tan skin looked. Although the evening wasn't that chilly, the arm that touched hers trembled violently. One of Pax's shoulders was bleeding. When Kally examined the wound, she realized something very different about it.

"I think the ambrosia healed his skin into the shirt. When I took it off, I had to… to tear the wound back open," Axel explained. His eyes were dark again. From the conversations she overheard, Kally knew Pax had tried to clean the blood off Axel's chin. There were still smears from where it dripped down his neck.

Although Pax had stopped crying upon entering the van, his eyes were puffy and red. He cracked a smile and said, "Axel just wanted to give me a reason to be shirtless around you."

Axel sighed. The motion was so normal, considering the events of the evening, that it felt surreal. "I know you're tired Kally, but could you-"

"It's not that bad," Pax insisted. "It can just be bandaged. In the meantime, you're not allowed to be all _bad-ass and invulnerable_ about those gashes on your chest." Although Pax was trying to joke, his voice sounded weak and scared, a sad mimic of his normal tone. He shoved at the blood smudged across Axel's tattered shirt.

Kally didn't notice. She'd leaned closer to Pax's shoulder, gently touching beside the wound. "Pax, your blood… it's… glittery…" she mumbled. The wound glistened faintly in the van's lighting. Now that she was more relaxed, she could feel out the wound with her magic. The ambrosia should still have an effect, and it did. Since she'd never seen someone take so much before, she couldn't be sure, but it seemed like Pax's wound was healing _even faster_ than it should.

"I like to call it _fabulous!_ " Pax chimed. He looked nervous.

Axel clenched his jaw.

"Have… I never seen you bleed before?" Kally muttered. Now that she was thinking about it, Pax didn't seem to get hurt very often.

"It takes a lot to make me bleed," Pax admitted, voice cracking.

By now, she should be used to the Pax brothers keeping their secrets, but this was different. Kally felt like she'd paid to see a DC animated movie, only to have it be live action. "Is this like, a Twilight vampire thing? You were talking about eating someone's heart." She didn't mean for it, but her voice shook. She dropped her hand from Pax's shoulder.

"Kally," Axel said. He sounded tired and sad. "For another night, please."

"Do you bleed shiny?" she asked.

He gave her a miserable smile. "No."

"I'm special," Pax stated with forced pride.

"Yes… yes you are," Axel agreed. He stared at Kally, his eyes unnervingly steady. "And harmless."

Shame drowned out her uncertainty. They'd helped each other through a lot. The Pax boys did get her into a lot of trouble and were terrified of talking about their heritage, but they'd never hurt her. She'd once promised Pax she wouldn't judge him based off his past or family. She wasn't about to go back on that promise. She'd judge him as the conniving, annoyingly cute weasel he was in the here and now. Weasel with glittery blood.

Kally set to bandaging Pax's shoulder, though—at its current rate—Kally assumed the wound would be healed by the end of the night.

At the motion of acceptance, tension smoothed out of the van.

Once done, she turned to Axel, who crouched beside them. "Okay Axel take off your…"

"I'm going to call it a sex costume. It more gives the illusion of clothing," Pax said.

Axel's hand snagged Pax's ear.

"I'm injured and pathetic—don't hurt me!" Pax squeaked.

Although Axel's cheeks were red with embarrassment, he released his little brother. Kally had never seen Axel give Pax a pass on that kind of behavior, but she figured he was as happy as she was to hear Pax joking around. He sighed, wordlessly stripping off the remains of his shirt and—after a moment of awkward hesitation—the remains of his pants.

Kally had him sit in her place so she could look him over. Pax tapped his fingers together evilly. "Yes, be distracted and mesmerized by his abs. Forget our previous conversation—"

"Shut up Ajax," Axel hissed. "You're not _that_ injured or pathetic."

There were burns all over his forearms, a few on his legs, and some on his left cheek. Four deep gashes decorated his chest, where Lamia must have slashed him with her claws. What looked like frostbite blackened the edge of one calf. As Kally examined Axel, debating on what to heal first, she wanted to curse at him for not saying anything about his wounds sooner, but she knew Mr. Stupid and Stoic would never change his ways.

As Kally knelt down to get a better look at the gashes, she muttered, "Okay, let's get you some ambrosia—"

"I can't have ambrosia," he stated.

"How about a Band-Aid? Can you have those?" Kally asked. She fished around the Pax medical kit for some needle and thread. She would have to use the last of her strength for those burns.

"Cyclops got fangs," Pax teased.

She snorted at him. "Pax, I need you to grab the back of Axel's calf. He's got frostbite. _Do not_ rub it; just keep your hands there to warm it. And Axel…" she glanced up from the needle and thread. His blush was worse than earlier and he seemed to struggle to keep eye contact.

 _Be mesmerized by his abs_ , Pax's taunt echoed in her head.

 _Damn it Pax,_ Kally thought. Reflexively, she put a hand to her mouth, feeling the heat in her cheeks. She'd been kneeling right in front of him, her hair dangling between his legs as she touched his torso. Kally became painfully aware of how nicely the grey waistline of his boxer briefs contrasted with his dark skin.

When she touched her lips, Axel broke eye contact. He cleared his throat. "Yes?"

She wasn't sure she could do this. "Uh—are you—can I—I'm going to stitch your gashes so I have enough energy to heal your burns," she managed.

He nodded, keeping his eyes on the ground.

"You okay?" Pax asked her, sitting beside her to cup his hands around his brother's calf.

Pax's shoulder brushed hers, still trembling. She glanced over at him, also aware that his chest was exposed. Merry would have been thrilled by this experience. All Kally could think was, _stupid, hot ex-circus boys._

"Pax, put on a fucking shirt. You're in shock still and shaking," she snapped.

He gave her that devil grin then crawled to one of the compartments in the van, then returned with a shirt on. He reclaimed his leg holding duty.

Kally went to sit where Pax had been on the van's bench, making her feel like this was a game of Medical Musical chairs. She threaded the needle, pointedly not making eye contact with Axel or Pax.

Axel cleared his throat again and said, "If Lamia was setting a trap for Alabaster, that means he's alive."

Pax didn't say anything. He didn't look at his brother. "You think so?" the question was quiet, all his humor peeled away.

"She would know if he were dead," Axel said. "She has the magic to track him, but he can block that. She'd know if he were dead."

 _He'd have no reason to hide if he were dead._

Kally took in a deep breath. She poured some alcohol onto a swab and began to dab at Axel's chest, trying not to think about his muscles. His breath remained steady. Although this felt like a private conversation—after the events of the night—she felt the right to ask, "How is Lamia involved with Alabaster? Is that her… other ex-boyfriend?"

She knew Alabaster was one of their good friends from Camp Othrys and apparently he'd spoiled the Pax brothers with lots of gifts.

"Ew!" Pax complained. "No!"

Kally glanced down at his outburst, wondering how—if he had dated that _thing_ —anything could bother him that much.

Pax was _blushing_. Kally wanted to glance around to see if the Apocalypse was on its way. When the world didn't explode, she stared. Tightness spread in her chest. She'd turned Pax down a number of times so she didn't know why she cared about his ex-girlfriends.

"They're half-siblings," Pax explained, his eyes sinking back to the ground. "It would be gross if you dated Will right? I mean, other than the fact that he's Will."

"Pax, how did you and L-" Kally asked.

Axel touched her shoulder. "Another night," he interrupted.

Kally frowned and tried to distract herself with the task at hand, only to remember she'd started talking to avoid thinking about the task at hand. She debated on asking Axel, " _Ready?"_ but saw he was watching her.

They both glanced away. Kally forced her hand to stay on his chest instead of reaching up to her lips. As fast as she could—pretty fast due to her demigod powers—Kally set to work lacing up his gashes.

Axel's breath became measured; Kally had to wonder if he was counting before inhaling. Softly, he said, "Ajax, we're going to find him."

"Do you think he wants to see me?" Pax murmured. Kally could barely hear him.

"I bet he's just as scared and alone as we were before we found Kally," Axel said with a dim smile. "And he's thinking the same thing—that your last conversation can't be an argument."

Pax made a sniffling noise and Kally was afraid he'd burst into tears again.

For the third time that night, Axel said, "We'll talk about it more on another night."

"I'm buying you a thesaurus," Pax croaked.

Kally tied the last stitch off. She set the needle and thread onto the ground, examining Axel's burns. He brought his gaze back to her, blush gone. "Heal them when we get back to camp," he instructed.

"Camp?" she echoed, confused.

Pax perked up, blinking at him. "Yea, camp?"

Axel nodded. "We're not going to have to sleep in shifts tonight. We're staying at Camp Half-Blood."

* * *

Within minutes of Axel driving, Pax squirmed his way into Kally's arms. If Kally could count a single day that Pax wasn't an opportunist, she'd agree to date him. He _knew_ how pathetic he looked right now. She _knew_ how badly he needed a hug. Despite pretending to be frustrated about it, Kally was glad to feel the comfort of his touch. Seeing him in that cage, scared and damaged like a lab animal—it made her feel sick to think about it.

They didn't talk much, but when they did, she made sure it was about light conversations: how she and Calex watched the Manchester United vs. Arsenal game together (Manchester _crushed_ Arsenal), how she'd been caught Iris Messaging Merry in her Chemistry class, how Joey invited all three of them to her and Euna's upcoming hapkido tournament. She didn't mention how—within the same conversation—Joey announced she was going to be dating Pax within the next month. She'd let Joey approach that with him, though she wondered if she'd be allowed to hug Pax like this anymore. [footnote 4]

While she talked, Pax burrowed his face against her neck. He shivered for most of the car-ride. Axel sipped a Monster energy drink as he drove. Kally could see his fingers hesitantly tapping against the sun visor. She'd give him a scolding look in the mirror and his fingers would sheepishly slide away.

At one point, Kally took a few sips of the Monster drink, so she could wake up enough to heal the burns on Axel's arms and face. It was difficult since he didn't want to pull over, but they made good time to Camp Half-Blood.

Once they got to camp, they sneaked around the harpy border patrol with ease. Argus caught them, but he waved them on through with a grunt. When they got to the cabins, Kally hesitated.

Pax had held her hand since they parked the van. At the cabins, his grip tightened. "Come in with us," he whispered.

Axel eyed him warily, but nodded an okay to Kally. She saw no reason to protest. They were already breaking curfew and she didn't want to leave the boys just yet.

Inside, Axel woke up and took Connor Stoll to the bathroom to explain to him what happened. That was as much privacy as could be managed in Cabin Eleven. Meanwhile, Kally and Pax took the two sleeping bags the Pax boys stored in the corner and laid them down. Travis Stoll's loud snores covered most of their movement, though—with it being spring—there weren't many campers to bother. Pax immediately opened his bedding completely, so it was more like a bed than a sleeping bag. He would probably want to be coddled all night, so didn't bother with the illusion of having two separate beds. Kally wondered what Axel would want Pax to do in the morning: take it easy or go straight into training to get his mind off everything.

Once they were done, Pax tugged Kally to sit down beside him in his new nest. Axel and Connor came out. From the way Connor's eyes lingered on Travis, she could tell Axel must have told him some of the details and he was thinking about how many monsters he'd kill to save his brother from that kind of torture. Or he was thinking about pranking him. It was hard to tell with the Stoll brothers.

As Connor walked back to his bunk, he ruffled Pax's hair.

Axel sat down on Pax's other side, resigning himself to sharing the bed.

Kally frowned. She should go back to Cabin Seven, but she wasn't ready to, not with some of Axel's _Monster_ drink running through her system. No one in Will's cabin knew what happened, and she didn't want to explain why she occasionally would shudder at the thought of Lamia taking a sledgehammer to Pax's hand, at the thought of how Pax used to date and presumably care for someone who could do that to him now.

"Kally," Pax leaned over to whisper into her ear, "Spend the night with us."

Axel scowled. "Ajax!" he hissed.

Kally put up a hand to defend Pax's ear. She _wanted_ to stay the night. She glanced hesitantly over at Connor, knowing the counselors couldn't really allow co-ed sleepovers—

Connor rolled heavily into his bunk, so he couldn't see them. "Ahhhh! Man," he yawned. "This cabin's counselor is such a heavy sleeper and such a loud snorer!"

That was the closest thing to a, _"I'm a child of Hermes, of course I don't care about the rules,"_ that she was going to get.

Axel sighed. "We're not letting you get away with all of this tomorrow."

"Which is why I need to take advantage of it tonight." Pax grinned.

Kally smiled. Then had a heart attack when Pax pulled her down beside him. Axel looked utterly annoyed as Pax moved them around like a human flower arrangement. _No, hm, I don't think the color Axel looks right there-_ — _yep_ — _there we go._

In the end, he positioned Axel to be on one side, backing up into him. Pax tugged Kally into his arms, making her blush that their faces were so close. She'd never shared a bed with a boy. Her mom would kill her for curling up with two like this—

 _Mom_.

Her mom was probably still at her aunt's. Kally wondered if her mom would ever talk to her again. She wondered if it mattered if she—Kally—ever came home. At the thought, Kally was happy Pax already held her.

Pax twitched, making Kally jump.

From the sound of his breathing, he'd been dozing off, but he whimpered, his eyes crinkling with distress.

Kally could hear Axel sigh. He rolled towards Pax, propping his head up on one hand. With the other, he reached across to pet Pax's hair. In a near whisper, he began to sing, " _X ciih x ciichpan u, tz' u likil yook kaax; tu bin u hopbal…_ " [footnote 5]

The song was soothing. Since Kally was used to the constant singing from the children of Apollo, it was hard to impress her, but she would believe Axel was once a backup singer. His voice was raspy and coy; she quickly recognized it from some of the songs Pax played in the car.

Everyone else stayed quiet in the cabin. Either they were trying to be respectful or the Hermes children were so numbed by constant pranks that nothing could wake them.

Pax stopped whimpering. He relaxed into the bedding and Kally could feel his grip loosen around her.

Axel switched hands. He sat up, stroking Pax's hair with the hand he'd been leaning on, and silently reached his other to Pax's utility belt.

Kally tried not to laugh when Axel nicked Pax's arm with one of his own sleep darts.

From how many times Pax knocked Axel unconscious, she suspected some part of Axel must have _really_ enjoyed doing that. If so, he hid it well. Axel slid away from Pax before tucking his little brother in.

When Axel went to stand up, Kally gave him a pleading look. Axel smiled, helping her disentangle from Pax.

No one stopped them from leaving the cabin. Neither asked if the other wanted to, but Kally got the distinct feeling they'd both had enough _Monster_ and adrenaline to keep them going for two more months. [footnote 6] For once, the air inside the camp's boundaries matched the weather outside—pleasantly cool. The moon was a half-slit, providing just enough light to walk comfortably and enough darkness to make the approaching tree line seem ominous.

Axel kept an ear tilted for the patrolling harpies as he led them towards the woods. Chiron kept the forest stocked with monsters for battle practice, but after his display earlier that night, Kally figured Axel wasn't afraid of any monster.

"What song was that?" Kally asked when they were clear of the cabins. She wasn't sure Axel would answer, but she hoped he would. Anything that could calm Pax like that must be some sort of sorcery.

"A lullaby," Axel said. After a moment of listening to creatures buzz and scurry among the ferns, he continued, "Mom and Dad used to sing us to sleep with it. Af—after Santiago… that was the only way I could get the little ones to sleep. When Hiro, Lapis, or Ajax would cry for them…"

Axel stopped walking. They were at least twenty feet into the woods, far enough to get disoriented. When Kally turned to face him, it felt like they were isolated for miles.

Axel's eyes were closed, jaw and fists clenched. He exhaled and fumbled in his pockets.

Kally intercepted his hand as it withdrew a cigarette.

When he scowled at her, his eyes looked frenzied. Then the crinkles relaxed. His shoulder slumped. With the fight gone, Axel looked tired and sad. He dropped the cigarette to take her hand, rolling a thumb across her knuckles. "I should have permanently killed that witch years ago. None of this could have happened if…" He shook his head, glaring at the moss under their feet. "Ajax could have died."

The obvious " _but he didn't"_ wouldn't make Axel feel better. Kally frowned. "You couldn't have known she was going to do that," she said, though that didn't sound much better.

Axel didn't say anything.

Kally examined the worry lines creased between his facial scars. _If he keeps this up, he's going to look like a mole rat,_ she thought. Cautiously, she took a step closer. After taking a deep gulp of night air for courage, she hugged him.

At first, she was certain he'd push her away, or stand limply in her arms, but Axel buried his face against her shoulder and slipped his arms about her waist. _You don't need to carry all this alone_ , she wanted to say, but knew better. Their team leader trembled and Kally couldn't help but observe that the Pax brothers weren't as different as they pretended to be.

"He's safe now," Axel whispered into her skin. "He's safe, and Alabaster is alive. Thank you—thank you for helping me save my little brother."

Kally stroked Axel's hair, wishing she knew the words to the lullaby he'd been singing to Pax. She didn't understand enough Mayan to remember the first verse. Instead, she choked out, "The only people allowed to hurt Pax for being annoying are standing right here."

Axel laughed hoarsely. He pulled back from her shoulder with a smile more appropriate on Pax than on him. "You've become feistier over the last six months," he observed.

The warmth of his hands contrasted nicely with the gentle chill of a breeze. Kally went to put a hand to her mouth, but Axel caught it. She felt the heat rise in her cheeks. Merry had said something similar a few months ago and Pax had said something similar earlier that night, but it sounded different from Axel. "Your brother does that. He takes perfectly functional people and ruins them," she said.

Axel chuckled. This one sounded more natural. Before Kally could register why he was getting so close, he kissed her forehead. "Seriously," he whispered. "Thank you for helping me get him."

Infuriated, Kally marveled over how Axel was the _only_ man alive that could make a kiss like that feel familial and friendly. She struggled to say something back and failed completely. Finally, she squeaked out, "He's too endearing to let die."

Axel found this an acceptable answer and released her. "Are you headed back to the Apollo cabin?" he asked.

She shook her head. She already wasn't tired. Now her heart was racing.

Axel sighed and glanced up at the sky. Kally wondered if Camp Half-Blood's barrier blotted out the light pollution, because the stars were vibrant. Axel put his hands into his pockets. "I won't get you home before dawn. Should we call your house so they know you're okay?"

"They won't miss me."

Axel dropped his gaze to hers. "Pax and I miss you. When you're gone."

Kally _really_ wished he'd stop doing that. It was like his little moment of Axel weakness—something that most people probably experience once a week and he experienced once a decade—had crushed all his barriers and he felt the need to be as nice as possible to cover it up.

He shrugged, like the comment was self-evident. "Do you want to stargaze?" he suggested. "I can tell you all the Mayan constellations. Grandma used to always talk about them when we visited her."

 _Damn it Axel_ , she mentally swore. Aloud, she squeaked something like, "I—um—yes?"

As they found a clearing on the forest floor to lie down on, Kally had a feeling she'd have a hand to her mouth to cover her blushing for the rest of the night.

* * *

Footnotes:

1 Fire

2 Purify/to clean air.

3 Appear.

4 This was also experimentation. I don't remember if I've said this before, but I don't actually know which of my characters end up with which other character. I kind of let the relationships form as I write them… which has gotten me into trouble with plot before ''

5 "When the moon has risen over the forest; it will burn, suspended in the air…" A passage from _The Flower Song_ , translated by John Curl.

6 Pax, "Ha ha, get it?! Monster!" Axel, "Shut up Ajax."

* * *

Thank you all for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little side adventure for Kally and the Pax boys :D


	4. Act IV (alternative ending)

Author's notes:

I wasn't going to post this… but VCRX asked to read it so…

Warning: Explicit sexual content and swearing ahead.

Important note: this section was experimentation on a character's back story I've changed around a lot since I wrote this. There are spoilers from _Blood of a Mayan_ from Chapter 29: An Evening Stroll to Our Doom. (This is an alternative universe where Kally finds things out Axel's secret in a very different way.) And, I might suggest you read the chapter prior to this in _When the Stone Cracks_ before you read this ending, so you remember where everyone is emotionally.

Also, the first two footnotes are Betanotes (as requested by VCRX) from Mel, but the next two are relevant translations.

* * *

Part II:

From what Axel described, the Mayans took their constellations very seriously. Instead of walking her through the different stories as she'd expected, Axel explained the importance of Chak Ek'-or the planet Venus-and eclipses. Some part of her wanted to sigh at her own naivety. She got the feeling Axel was the kind of guy that would take a girl to a lecture on _how to break someone's neck in three seconds or less_ and would assume that was the perfect date.

The other part of Kally could barely keep up with his words. Axel had motioned her right beside him, so she laid down with his arm as a headrest. Pax must have also wiped him down with Wet Ones because he didn't smell like smoke anymore. He smelled like a spicier rendition of chocolate than his brother did. It reminded her of the Mayan hot chocolate they'd had at the _Monster Mash_.

The spot on her forehead where he kissed felt so tender. She couldn't stop thinking about how his jaw line looked when he'd leaned down. _It hadn't meant anything_ , she scolded. This was Axel. If he liked the gods, he'd drop a compliment to Aphrodite without a thought to the consequences.

Kally took a deep breath and rolled into him, pressing her face against his chest, resting a hand on his collarbone, and hooking one leg around his. Now that they weren't moving, she was happy for his additional heat. It was weird how comfortable she felt here, exposed in the monster-infested forest. But she knew he'd keep her safe.

Axel stumbled over his words when she readjusted against him. Kally found this hard to bel—

"Oh! Your wounds!" she yelped.

"I'm fine," he said, more like an order than a reassurance.

She propped herself up on one hand and examined his shirt. Sections of it puffed out because of the bandages. She touched the edges and felt her gaze lowering. Because he had one hand behind his head, the ends of his shirt rode up, exposing enough of his midriff to see his happy trail. The temperature in her face went super nova. From a conversation she hadn't wanted to hear between her brothers, boxer briefs were the best type of underwear for workouts, so of course Axel wore them. But couldn't he have worn regular boxers and left some of his shape to the imagination?

Kally hadn't realized she'd put her free hand to her mouth until Axel took it. "I'm fine," he repeated, fortunately misunderstanding the cause for her stare. "Your face is beautiful, stop covering it up," he stated and leaned back onto the moss.

 _Nope. Nope, you're not allowed to do that,_ she internally whined.

"Damn it Axel," she hissed aloud. When she slipped a hand to the back of his neck, Axel didn't react. It wasn't until she pulled him down for a kiss that his eyes went wide with surprise.

The taste of chocolate was overwhelming.

Axel tensed under her. She waited for him to shove her away, but he froze. [footnote 1]

When Kally pulled back an inch, she found him blinking at her in confusion, like the concept of _his lips+her lips=happy lips_ wasn't a reality. She wanted to smack him for his nonchalance, his nonreactiveness. Instead, she nipped his lower lip.

Comprehension hit him with the same result as a can of red spray paint. Axel blushed. Out of all the smooth and confident things she'd heard him say, "um" wasn't what she was expecting in this situation. He tried to speak, but faltered. When he started to wordlessly mouth, "Why?" she leaned over to kiss his ear.

She wished she could tease him—that the Great Axel Pax was at a loss of words. All she could think about was how soft his hair felt when her cheek brushed it. [footnote 2]

"Not my ear—" was the first thing he managed to choke out, dropping his chin so she'd have easier access to his mouth. _So… later, your ears,_ Kally mentally noted.

There was a moment where she wasn't sure if he'd throw her off or yell at her.

Then, hesitantly, he met her lips. His caress was so soft and subtle, she felt like she was kissing mist. The hand that was behind his head slipped down to rest on the small of her back. The fingers of his opposite one traced her neck. When Kally shivered at the stroke, Axel murmured.

Each touch was uncertain and cautious. Kally remembered all the times Pax had mocked Axel, _You'd be a great hunter of Artemis._ He'd been serious. Axel _hadn't_ done this before. He probably _hadn't_ known he was flirting earlier.

She wondered if this is how Pax felt the first time they'd shared a prolonged kiss: agonized over the tenderness of each touch, adoring the innocence and shyness—Axel's insecurity of where to place his hands, how long he should hold each embrace, whether he should or shouldn't grip, how he followed her lead and mimicked what he could—and, lastly, how desperately Kally ached to find his barrier and break it.

When she brushed her tongue across his lips, he parted them obediently with a soft mumble. She couldn't believe how timid he was, like he was testing a burner with his mouth. As she slid higher on him, pressing one hand against his hip and another to stroke the scars across his temple, she realized how much rougher his tongue was than Pax's. _Scars_ , she thought, _how does he have scars there too?_

Something sharp nicked her tongue. Kally gasped, reflexively jerking back—

—but Axel sat up with her, his hand tightening on her back to lock their bodies. His other tugged Kally's hair to tilt her head away. " _Bin in tz'uutz' a chi—"_ he exhaled. The wet warmth of his tongue tingled against her skin as he rolled it from her collarbone to her chin. " _Ko'oh ts'u'uts et k'aah k'i'ik, hats'uts nikte'."_ _[footnote 3]_

He shifted onto his knees, lifting her.

"Axel!" Kally squeaked in surprise. Although she knew Axel wouldn't drop her, she clutched at his shoulders. She was too short to kneel beside him—

Axel released her hair and pulled her leg around his waist. Kally mimicked the motion with her other leg, hooking her ankles behind his back. Her skirt rode up and Kally could feel the cold metal of Axel's belt buckle press into her underwear.

Her face felt hot and the rest of her skin became hypersensitive. With her weight around his torso, he could slide the rough calluses of his palm up her thigh, pushing the skirt to her hips. Kally could feel the stretched fabric of her leggings rip.

The smell of chocolate was overwhelming. That taste mixed with the blood from her cut tongue, reminding Kally of Lamia's cellar. The image of Axel pouncing off the wall with a sledgehammer flickered in her memory, but only until he bit her shoulder.

She could feel her bra strap snap under his teeth. Although he'd only nipped, she whined in pain. That—that shouldn't have hurt so—

His mouth mashed back onto hers. Kally gasped. "I want your sweat," he breathed before murmuring, " _Y an y an a u ahal—Hooch wi'ih k'iinam, et chukik ch'a'ik, chan nikte."_ [footnote 4]

The hand on her thigh rolled over her hip and dipped to clench her panties. She could feel the material tug at the front and Kally started to pant.

"Axel…."

She was supposed to be the experienced one. She was supposed to leave him flustered.

His other hand pushed under the back of her shirt, groping with her bra clasp. The material ripped under his nails.

Kally clenched her legs. She dropped a hand to fumble with his belt buckle. She thought about how nice the lining of his boxer briefs looked when she had stitched his wounds. The belt clicked open. As Axel's tongue flicked along her jaw to her ear, she unzipped his jeans and tugged, frustrated she couldn't get more leverage to pull them off.

She grasped at his stomach. The hair on his abdomen was soft and thickened as she massaged her fingers downward.

Axel made a whine that rumbled into a purr. He dropped forward, catching them just before they hit the moss with the hand that had been tugging at her underwear. Then his chest crushed down onto her breasts, his hips gyrating against hers. If her face could get hotter, it would have; an embarrassing moan escaped her throat before she could stop it. "Axel—Axel—your underwear—" she gasped.

He caught one of her hands and forced it above her head, enlacing their fingers.

Kally struggled to squeeze her other hand between them. She grasped the edge of his boxer briefs and pushed down, groping—

Axel tore his face from hers. He scrambled backwards.

The motion was so fast, Kally stared at the constellations for a few seconds before she understood why the air suddenly felt cold. She sat up in confusion, her heartbeat thundering, sweat sticking the remains of her shirt to her chest. Had there been a monster—

Axel's eyes blazed a reflective gold in the moonlight that trickled through the pine trees. He'd flopped back on his ass, legs partially curled towards him with his jeans and boxers down to his thighs. He propped his elbows on his knees as he clutched the side of his shaking head. "Too fast—too fast," he whispered between pants.

As Kally watched, he rubbed his face. With each motion, his eyes darkened and became matte, his teeth—

His _fangs_ shrank to normal teeth.

She felt herself tremble. _What_ had just happened?

"That was dumb," he hissed to himself.

"Kissing me was dumb?" she repeated numbly, too perplexed, flustered, and disappointed to feel offended.

"No—" he said definitely. With as much assurance, he corrected, "Yes." Once he looked more like… Axel, he took another shaky breath and glanced at her.

His jaw clenched and his eyes widened. Axel leaned towards her, reached a hand towards her chin, but hesitated. "Oh—Kally," he whispered, "I hurt you."

 _What is he talking about?_

"I'm fine," she stated, touching her mouth. When she withdrew her hand, there was blood on her finger tips. She hadn't realized her tongue was bleeding so much. Self-consciously, she pressed her shirt and the remains of her bra against her chest, only to notice a red stain on her shoulder. That was where he'd snapped her bra strap with his teeth. With the adrenaline fading, tingles of pain spread across her back, where she knew Axel had been groping her and broke her bra clasp with his nails.

"I—I'm fine," she repeated, curling her legs up. She used her other hand to push her skirt down, finding small traces of cuts along her thighs. Her leggings were in tatters on the ground. By now, her trembles had become violent.

 _What if we had?_ A voice whispered internally, _if you opened your eyes and saw the yellow of those eyes and fangs, would you scream?_

She swallowed, trying not to ask the question pounding the inside of her lips, _What the fuck?_

 _That_ was what he was scared she'd say. _That's_ why he'd been hiding.

"I'm fine," she said with more conviction, scrambling for something to put him at ease, to hide how freaked out she was. "You didn't have to stop," she squeaked. As the words came out, she felt the heat return to her cheeks, her gaze slipping to his exposed—um—

Axel blushed. Like he hadn't been acting as virile as Zeus, he stood and fumbled to tuck himself back into his boxers and pants.

Giggles broke out in the forest around them. Axel jumped, taking a protective step closer to Kally. In the dim lighting, Kally could make out the green outline of wood nymphs in the trees. One—Olive?—was fanning her face. "You _really_ didn't have to stop," she called.

Axel looked positively mortified. His mouth hung open in shock. "Wha—when—"

Kally could tell he was caught between feeling ashamed, rude—for having not handled Kally in a properly private place—and violated for the intrusion.

Kally stood up in front of him. "I'm sure Chiron would approve of this type of voyeurism on campers."

"What?" Olive laughed, "Like you'd tell him you were out roughhousing."

She thought about how proudly Axel had placed his arm around her shoulder at _The Horizontal Monster Mash_. "Yea. Yea, I would," she said. "Though I don't think I need to be specific for Merry to pass on to her dad that a few nymphs were acting out of line."

Olive stopped laughing. The nymphs vanished into the trees.

The forest felt too quiet. After a moment, Kally gave Axel a small smile. "I liked that—getting to save you for once," she tried to joke.

The horror hadn't left his expression. His shoulders were tense and militaristic.

Could the nymphs not see through Axel's mist? Maybe he'd looked like a normal guy and her clothing just looked torn from…. Axel's roughousing. Every time she thought she could stop feeling embarrassed, she failed.

Gently, she took his hand. "Hey, it's okay—"

His paralysis broke. Axel cleared his throat and pulled his hand away. Seeming very aware how easily someone could be watching them, his eyes drifted back towards the cabins. To the Hermes cabin. To where he'd knocked Pax out with a sleep dart.

"We can't," Axel whispered.

"I'm not dating Pax," Kally snapped. She could handle Axel freaking out over his whole perfect-for-rave eyes thing, but not his little brother.

Axel shook his head, frowning. "That's not the only reason."

Kally sighed. She was getting sick of the _vague-and-mysterious_ attitude. It was hot to read about, not to experience. "You're not actually a vampire are you?" she asked, exacerbated.

"What—?" he laughed, "No—no. Nothing that simple." He puffed up his cheeks and popped them, relaxing as much as he ever did. "I'm sorry I lost control," he muttered.

"I'm not," she said. Although she knew she was blushing, Kally kept her gaze firmly on his.

Axel coughed. He put a hand to the back of his head and looked down. "Um—I'll walk you back to the Apollo cabin."

They didn't talk as they walked. Axel wouldn't touch her and appeared to have fallen in love with the ground with how closely he examined it.

Kally wanted to hit her head into a tree—preferably one with a wood nymph to kill two birds with one stone. Hopefully, the entire Apollo cabin was composed of heavy sleepers; she _did not_ want to explain what happened to her wardrobe. Attacked by a monster?

She thought about Axel's eyes. Maybe that wasn't much of a lie.

As the cabins appeared out of the trees, Axel cleared his throat. He stopped walking, hesitated, and swallowed. "Blood activates my magic," he said. "At least, it's the first step."

Kally stopped beside him. This couldn't be real: a Pax boy being blunt? Was Hephaestus about to win a beauty contest too?

"I—um…" he sighed. "If I… am active—with someone… someone I like," saying it looked like it physically hurt him, "I might… I might not be able to use my magic anymore."

She stared. "You… can't… um..."

Axel coughed. "I—warrior priests have been known to weaken after breaking their celibacy. It… I don't know any in person to know for sure, but there are stories in ancient texts..." He jammed his hands further into his pockets, glancing up at the constellations. "I can't unless I'm ready to settle down and have a family," he spat out.

Warrior priests that couldn't have sex? All of his flirting, his compliments, his being—being _him_.

Maybe it was the exhaustion setting in, but Kally almost laughed. "You," she stated, "Are a _huge_ cocktease."

The blush conquered his cheeks again. "You're spending way too much time with Ajax and Merry!" he protested.

She shrugged. "Maybe so, but…" she tried to remember what the boys in her Youth Group would say. "You're worse than most Catholic girls—I'm only joking," she added, seeing how miserable she'd made him. "Hey—"

Kally pulled one of his hands out of his pockets. He frowned. "Just—just tell us things like that. I wouldn't have—um... " She still _definitely_ would have kissed him. "I wouldn't have kept kissing you if I'd have known…" Did that mean they couldn't… it shouldn't— "A kiss isn't sex though," she squeaked.

"No…" he admitted. "Kisses are okay but—I told you, it's complicated—"

Kally kissed him. Axel tensed up. She withdrew and smiled. "Goodnight Axel."

Although she tried not to focus on it, his expression was crushed, like she'd ripped out his heart and walked off with it. Merry would possibly have been proud. Guilt made Kally waver as she walked, but she kept reminding herself, _he needs someone to love him, someone to help share his burdens._

It was too late to think about it much. Axel, Pax, Lamia, Alabaster… should they not have done that? Kally bit her lip. There was no point in worrying about it tonight. Too much had happened tonight.

From the few nights she'd stayed in the Apollo cabin, she remembered her half-siblings losing total awareness when the sun was down. She hoped it was still like that. But as she approached, she was horrified to see someone standing on the porch to greet her.

Austin, her half-brother, gave her a _huge_ grin.

Kally pushed her shirt tighter against her body. _Oh gods no._

"Hey Kally," he cheered.

"Why are you up?" she demanded, unable to fake a cool.

"A group of nymphs made a large ruckus in the woods, so I woke up to shoo them off." He glanced her over, then glanced to the form of Axel, retreating towards the Hermes' Cabin. "So… I see your talk with Axel went well."

Her mouth went dry. "Fine," she said.

"It wasn't much of a talk was it?"

"Shut up and help me find some PJs."

* * *

And now you know where _When the Stone Cracks_ gets its name. And might have lost all respect for me as a writer… *ehem* But I hope you enjoyed! :D

* * *

Footnotes:

1 B/N: Mel, "I just… I don't know how to handle what I secretly shipped but was okay with nothing happening… I just… I'm seriously in some sort of fan shock. There are so many thoughts (cruelly: Pax lost… is one) (mostly: this is happening.)"

2 B/N: Mel, "MY CONFLICTION IS STRONG AS THE LINES HERE ARE. In a more joking note: THE BOULDER FEELS CONFLICTED ABOUT FIGHTING A TINY BLIND GIRL *Toph insults him* THE BOULDER IS OVER HIS CONFLICTION! "

3 Axel is reciting Mayan poetry from _The Songs of Dzitbalche_ to Kally with the line, "I will kiss your mouth," but interrupts the poem with his own poetry, continuing with a much more ominous, "-a costly kiss with bitter blood, [you] lovely flower."

4 Axel is reciting the last line of the same poem, "You have to hurry," and again, interrupts with his own deviation, "harvest [my] hungry ache, with captured breath, little flower."


End file.
